The Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) provides Canadians with the best information and tools in order to keep patients safe.

In this section you will find evidence-based tools and resources developed by CPSI, in collaboration with experts to support safe practices across the continuum of care. You will also find useful links to resources from external healthcare organizations.

Tools and Resources can be divided into three major focus areas:

Prevention of Adverse Events or Harm:

Ideally organizations will prevent harm to those they care for through strategies such as a good design of processes or structures involving the use of human factors or improved communications. A good example of this is the Safe Surgery Checklist.

Identification of Adverse Events and Close Calls:
Unfortunately close calls and harm cannot always be prevented and therefore it is important to be able to recognize these instances through robust reporting mechanisms. An example of this is trigger tools.

Learning from Adverse Events and Close Calls to Support Improvement Strategies:

Once an opportunity for learning has been identified it is important to understand, through excellent analysis, what may be done to reduce the likelihood of a recurrence of the risk, and carefully implement the changes required. An example of this is the Canadian Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Framework.

Organizations with a well developed understanding and implementation of a just culture are often best positioned to carry out strategies to improve the quality of patient care. Part of the focus of a just culture is the development of a fair and equitable relationship between healthcare organizations, providers and those who receive care. It is through all of these efforts that healthcare organizations and providers will create the improvement they desire.